T long-term effects of cognitive therapy and behavior therapy (CTBT) for menopausal symptoms are unknown, and whether the effects are different between natural menopause and treatment-induced menopause are currently unclear. Therefore, we sought to conduct an accurate estimate of the efficacy of CTBT for menopausal symptoms.

We conducted searches of Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science databases for studies from 1 January 1977 to 1 November 2021. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing intervention groups to control groups for menopausal symptoms were included. Hedge's g was used as the standardized between-group effect size with a random-effects model.

We included 14 RCTs comprising 1618 patients with a mean sample size of 116. CTBT significantly outperformed control groups in terms of reducing hot flushes [g = 0.39, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23–0.55, I2 = 45], night sweats, depression (g = 0.50, 95% CI 0.34–0.66, I2 = 51), anxiety (g = 0.38, 95% CI 0.23–0.54, I2 = 49), fatigue, and quality of life. Egger's test indicated no publication bias.

CTBT is an effective psychological treatment for menopausal symptoms, with predominantly small to moderate effects. The efficacy is sustained long-term, although it declines somewhat over time. The efficacy was stronger for natural menopause symptoms, such as vasomotor symptoms, than for treatment-induced menopause symptoms. These findings provide support for treatment guidelines recommending CTBT as a treatment option for menopausal symptoms.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most highly co-occurring psychiatric disorder among veterans with cannabis use disorder (CUD). Despite some evidence that cannabis use prospectively exacerbates the course of PTSD, which in turn increases the risk for CUD, the causal nature of the relationship between cannabis and psychiatric comorbidity is debated. The longitudinal relationship between PTSD diagnosis and traumatic intrusion symptoms with cannabis use and CUD was examined using cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) analysis.

Prospective data from a longitudinal observational study of 361 veterans deployed post-9/11/2001 included PTSD and CUD diagnoses, cannabis use, and PTSD-related traumatic intrusion symptoms from the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms.

A random intercept CLPM analysis that leveraged three waves (baseline, 6 months and 12 months) of cannabis use and PTSD-related intrusion symptoms to account for between-person differences found that baseline cannabis use was significantly positively associated with 6-month intrusion symptoms; the converse association was significant but reduced in magnitude (baseline use to 6-month intrusions: β = 0.46, 95% CI 0.155–0.765; baseline intrusions to 6-month use: β = 0.22, 95% CI −0.003 to 0.444). Results from the two-wave CLPM reveal a significant effect from baseline PTSD to 12-month CUD (β = 0.15, 95% CI 0.028–0.272) but not from baseline CUD to 12-month PTSD (β = 0.12, 95% CI −0.022 to 0.262).

Strong prospective associations capturing within-person changes suggest that cannabis use is linked with greater severity of trauma-related intrusion symptoms over time. A strong person-level directional association between PTSD and CUD was evident. Findings have significant clinical implications for the long-term effects of cannabis use among individuals with PTSD.

There is evidence that depression can be prevented; however, traditional approaches face significant scalability issues. Digital technologies provide a potential solution, although this has not been adequately tested. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a new smartphone app designed to reduce depression symptoms and subsequent incident depression amongst a large group of Australian workers.

A randomized controlled trial was conducted with follow-up assessments at 5 weeks and 3 and 12 months post-baseline. Participants were employed Australians reporting no clinically significant depression. The intervention group (N = 1128) was allocated to use HeadGear, a smartphone app which included a 30-day behavioural activation and mindfulness intervention. The attention-control group (N = 1143) used an app which included a 30-day mood monitoring component. The primary outcome was the level of depressive symptomatology (PHQ-9) at 3-month follow-up. Analyses were conducted within an intention-to-treat framework using mixed modelling.

Those assigned to the HeadGear arm had fewer depressive symptoms over the course of the trial compared to those assigned to the control (F3,734.7 = 2.98, p = 0.031). Prevalence of depression over the 12-month period was 8.0% and 3.5% for controls and HeadGear recipients, respectively, with odds of depression caseness amongst the intervention group of 0.43 (p = 0.001, 95% CI 0.26–0.70).

This trial demonstrates that a smartphone app can reduce depression symptoms and potentially prevent incident depression caseness and such interventions may have a role in improving working population mental health. Some caution in interpretation is needed regarding the clinical significance due to small effect size and trial attrition.

Trial Registration Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (www.anzctr.org.au/) ACTRN12617000548336

Cognitive deficits affect a significant proportion of patients with bipolar disorder (BD). Problems with sustained attention have been found independent of mood state and the causes are unclear. We aimed to investigate whether physical parameters such as activity levels, sleep, and body mass index (BMI) may be contributing factors.

Forty-six patients with BD and 42 controls completed a battery of neuropsychological tests and wore a triaxial accelerometer for 21 days which collected information on physical activity, sleep, and circadian rhythm. Ex-Gaussian analyses were used to characterise reaction time distributions. We used hierarchical regression analyses to examine whether physical activity, BMI, circadian rhythm, and sleep predicted variance in the performance of cognitive tasks.

Neither physical activity, BMI, nor circadian rhythm predicted significant variance on any of the cognitive tasks. However, the presence of a sleep abnormality significantly predicted a higher intra-individual variability of the reaction time distributions on the Attention Network Task.

This study suggests that there is an association between sleep abnormalities and cognition in BD, with little or no relationship with physical activity, BMI, and circadian rhythm.

Brain imaging studies have shown altered amygdala activity during emotion processing in children and adolescents with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) compared to typically developing children and adolescents (TD). Here we aimed to assess whether aggression-related subtypes (reactive and proactive aggression) and callous-unemotional (CU) traits predicted variation in amygdala activity and skin conductance (SC) response during emotion processing.

We included 177 participants (n = 108 cases with disruptive behaviour and/or ODD/CD and n = 69 TD), aged 8–18 years, across nine sites in Europe, as part of the EU Aggressotype and MATRICS projects. All participants performed an emotional face-matching functional magnetic resonance imaging task.

Differences between cases and TD in affective processing, as well as specificity of activation patterns for aggression subtypes and CU traits, were assessed. Simultaneous SC recordings were acquired in a subsample (n = 63). Cases compared to TDs showed higher amygdala activity in response to negative faces (fearful and angry) v. shapes. Subtyping cases according to aggression-related subtypes did not significantly influence on amygdala activity; while stratification based on CU traits was more sensitive and revealed decreased amygdala activity in the high CU group. SC responses were significantly lower in cases and negatively correlated with CU traits, reactive and proactive aggression.

Our results showed differences in amygdala activity and SC responses to emotional faces between cases with ODD/CD and TD, while CU traits moderate both central (amygdala) and peripheral (SC) responses. Our insights regarding subtypes and trait-specific aggression could be used for improved diagnostics and personalized treatment.

Two types of mentalization-based treatment (MBT), day hospital MBT (MBT-DH) and intensive outpatient MBT (MBT-IOP), have been shown to be effective in treating patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study evaluated trajectories of change in a multi-site trial of MBT-DH and MBT-IOP at 36 months after the start of treatment.

All 114 patients (MBT-DH n = 70, MBT-IOP n = 44) from the original multicentre trial were assessed at 24, 30 and 36 months after the start of treatment. The primary outcome was symptom severity measured with the Brief Symptom Inventory. Secondary outcome measures included borderline symptomatology, personality and interpersonal functioning, quality of life and self-harm. Data were analysed using multilevel modelling and the intention-to-treat principle.

Patients in both MBT-DH and MBT-IOP maintained the substantial improvements made during the intensive treatment phase and showed further gains during follow-up. Across both conditions, 83% of patients improved in terms of symptom severity, and 97% improved on borderline symptomatology. No significant differences were found between MBT-DH and MBT-IOP at 36 months after the start of treatment. However, trajectories of change were different. Whereas patients in MBT-DH showed greater improvement during the intensive treatment phase, patients in MBT-IOP showed greater continuing improvement during follow-up.

Patients in both conditions showed similar large improvements over the course of 36 months, despite large differences in treatment intensity. MBT-DH and MBT-IOP were associated with different trajectories of change. Cost-effectiveness considerations and predictors of differential treatment outcome may further inform optimal treatment selection.

Genetically informed studies have provided mixed findings as to what extent parental substance misuse is associated with offspring substance misuse and antisocial behavior due to shared environmental and genetic factors.

We linked data from nationwide registries for a cohort of 2 476 198 offspring born in Sweden 1958–1995 and their parents. Substance misuse was defined as International Classification of Diseases diagnoses of alcohol/drug use disorders or alcohol/drug-related criminal convictions. Quantitative genetic offspring-of-siblings analyses in offspring of monozygotic and dizygotic twin, full-sibling, and half-sibling parents were conducted.

Both maternal and paternal substance misuse were robustly associated with offspring substance misuse [maternal adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) = 1.83 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.80–1.87); paternal aHR = 1.96 (1.94–1.98)] and criminal convictions [maternal aHR = 1.56 (1.54–1.58); paternal aHR = 1.66 (1.64–1.67)]. Additive genetic effects explained 42% (95% CI 25–56%) and 46% (36–55%) of the variance in maternal and paternal substance misuse, respectively, and between 36 and 44% of the variance in substance misuse and criminality in offspring. The associations between parental substance misuse and offspring outcomes were mostly due to additive genetic effects, which explained 54–85% of the parent-offspring covariance. However, both nuclear and extended family environmental factors also contributed to the associations, especially with offspring substance misuse.

Our findings from a large offspring-of-siblings study indicate that shared genetic influences mostly explain the associations between parental substance misuse and both offspring substance misuse and criminality, but we also found evidence for the contribution of environmental factors shared by members of nuclear and extended families.

The development of childhood anxiety disorders (CADs) is likely to depend on pathways that can be programmed by early-life risk factors. We test the hypothesis that early-life maternal factors can predict this programming effect on CAD.

Data were obtained from 198 women and children from the Mercy Pregnancy and Emotional Wellbeing Study (MPEWS), a cohort study with data collected across pregnancy, postpartum and until 4 years of age. Maternal antenatal depression was measured using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-IV), together with antenatal hair cortisol concentrations, maternal childhood trauma and parenting stress at 6 months postpartum. CAD was assessed with the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment and the Child Behaviour Checklist.

Antenatal depression, a history of maternal childhood trauma and lower gestational age at birth were each associated with anxiety disorders at 4 years of age in their children. A multivariate binary logistic model with these early predictors explained approximately 9% of variance in CAD outcome at 4 years of age; however, only maternal trauma and gestational age were significant predictors in the model. The effect of early parenting stress on CAD was found to vary by the concentration of maternal antenatal hair cortisol, whereby postpartum parenting stress was associated with CAD only when there were higher maternal antenatal cortisol levels.

This study suggests the importance of maternal factors pre-conception, pregnancy and in the postnatal period, which predict CADs and this is consistent with a developmental programming hypothesis for CAD.

Inflammation and metabolic dysregulation are age-related physiological changes and are associated with depressive disorder. We tried to identify subgroups of depressed older patients based on their metabolic-inflammatory profile and examined the course of depression for these subgroups.

This clinical cohort study was conducted in a sample of 364 depressed older (⩾60 years) patients according to DSM-IV criteria. Severity of depressive symptoms was monitored every 6 months and a formal diagnostic interview repeated at 2-year follow-up. Latent class analyses based on baseline metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers were performed. Adjusted for confounders, we compared remission of depression at 2-year follow-up between the metabolic-inflammatory subgroups with logistic regression and the course of depression severity over 2-years by linear mixed models.

We identified a ‘healthy’ subgroup (n = 181, 49.7%) and five subgroups characterized by different profiles of metabolic-inflammatory dysregulation. Compared to the healthy subgroup, patients in the subgroup with mild ‘metabolic and inflammatory dysregulation’ (n = 137, 37.6%) had higher depressive symptom scores, a lower rate of improvement in the first year, and were less likely to be remitted after 2-years [OR 0.49 (95% CI 0.26–0.91)]. The four smaller subgroups characterized by a more specific immune-inflammatory dysregulation profile did not differ from the two main subgroups regarding the course of depression.

Nearly half of the patients with late-life depressions suffer from metabolic-inflammatory dysregulation, which is also associated with more severe depression and a worse prognosis. Future studies should examine whether these depressed older patients benefit from a metabolic-inflammatory targeted treatment.

Functional impairment is a defining feature of psychotic disorders. A range of factors has been shown to influence functioning, including negative symptoms, cognitive performance and cognitive reserve (CR). However, it is not clear how these variables may affect functioning in first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients. This 2-year follow-up study aimed to explore the possible mediating effects of CR on the relationship between cognitive performance or specific clinical symptoms and functional outcome.

A prospective study of non-affective FEP patients was performed (211 at baseline and 139 at follow-up). CR was entered in a path analysis model as potential mediators between cognitive domains or clinical symptoms and functioning.

At baseline, the relationship between clinical variables or cognitive performance and functioning was not mediated by CR. At follow-up, the effect of attention (p = 0.003) and negative symptoms (p = 0.012) assessed at baseline on functioning was partially mediated by CR (p = 0.032 and 0.016), whereas the relationship between verbal memory (p = 0.057) and functioning was mediated by CR (p = 0.014). Verbal memory and positive and total subscales of PANSS assessed at follow-up were partially mediated by CR and the effect of working memory on functioning was totally mediated by CR.

Our results showed the influence of CR in mediating the relationship between cognitive domains or clinical symptoms and functioning in FEP. In particular, CR partially mediated the relationship between some cognitive domains or clinical symptoms and functioning at follow-up. Therefore, CR could improve our understanding of the long-term functioning of patients with a non-affective FEP.

Cognitive models propose that behavioural responses to voices maintain distress by preventing disconfirmation of negative beliefs about voices. We used Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) to examine the hypothesized maintenance role of behavioural responses during daily life.

Thirty-one outpatients with frequent voices completed a smartphone-based ESM questionnaire 10 times a day over 9 days, assessing voice-related distress; resistance and compliance responses to voices; voice characteristics (intensity and negative content); appraisals of voice dominance, uncontrollability and intrusiveness.

In line with predictions, behavioural responses were associated with voice appraisals (dominance and uncontrollability), but not voice characteristics. Greater resistance and compliance were reported in moments of increased voice distress, but these associations did not persist after controlling for concurrent voice appraisals and characteristics. Voice distress was predicted by appraisals, and, unexpectedly, also by voice characteristics. As predicted, compliance and resistance were related to increases in distress at subsequent timepoints, whilst antecedent voice appraisals and characteristics had no such effect. Compliance, but not resistance, additionally predicted subsequent increases in voice uncontrollability. In both cases, the reverse models showed no association, indicating directional effects of responses on subsequent distress, and of compliance on uncontrollability appraisals.

These results provide support for the cognitive model by suggesting that momentary behavioural and emotional responses to voices are associated with concurrent negative voice appraisals. Findings suggest that behavioural responses may be driven by voice appraisals, rather than directly by distress, and may in turn maintain voice appraisals and associated distress during the course of daily life.

Over the past 15 years, there has been substantial growth in web-based psychological interventions. We summarize evidence regarding the efficacy of web-based self-directed psychological interventions on depressive, anxiety and distress symptoms in people living with a chronic health condition.

We searched Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE databases and Cochrane Database from 1990 to 1 May 2019. English language papers of randomized controlled trials (usual care or waitlist control) of web-based psychological interventions with a primary or secondary aim to reduce anxiety, depression or distress in adults with a chronic health condition were eligible. Results were assessed using narrative synthases and random-effects meta-analyses.

In total 70 eligible studies across 17 health conditions [most commonly: cancer (k = 20), chronic pain (k = 9), arthritis (k = 6) and multiple sclerosis (k = 5), diabetes (k = 4), fibromyalgia (k = 4)] were identified. Interventions were based on CBT principles in 46 (66%) studies and 42 (60%) included a facilitator. When combining all chronic health conditions, web-based interventions were more efficacious than control conditions in reducing symptoms of depression g = 0.30 (95% CI 0.22–0.39), anxiety g = 0.19 (95% CI 0.12–0.27), and distress g = 0.36 (95% CI 0.23–0.49).

Evidence regarding effectiveness for specific chronic health conditions was inconsistent. While self-guided online psychological interventions may help to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression and distress in people with chronic health conditions in general, it is unclear if these interventions are effective for specific health conditions. More high-quality evidence is needed before definite conclusions can be made.

A number of genomic conditions caused by copy number variants (CNVs) are associated with a high risk of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders (ND-CNVs). Although these patients also tend to have cognitive impairments, few studies have investigated the range of emotion and behaviour problems in young people with ND-CNVs using measures that are suitable for those with learning difficulties.

A total of 322 young people with 13 ND-CNVs across eight loci (mean age: 9.79 years, range: 6.02–17.91, 66.5% male) took part in the study. Primary carers completed the Developmental Behaviour Checklist (DBC).

Of the total, 69% of individuals with an ND-CNV screened positive for clinically significant difficulties. Young people from families with higher incomes (OR = 0.71, CI = 0.55–0.91, p = .008) were less likely to screen positive. The rate of difficulties differed depending on ND-CNV genotype (χ2 = 39.99, p < 0.001), with the lowest rate in young people with 22q11.2 deletion (45.7%) and the highest in those with 1q21.1 deletion (93.8%). Specific patterns of strengths and weaknesses were found for different ND-CNV genotypes. However, ND-CNV genotype explained no more than 9–16% of the variance, depending on DBC subdomain.

Emotion and behaviour problems are common in young people with ND-CNVs. The ND-CNV specific patterns we find can provide a basis for more tailored support. More research is needed to better understand the variation in emotion and behaviour problems not accounted for by genotype.

Eating disorders (EDs) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently co-occur and can share a functional relationship. The primary aim of this initial randomized controlled trial was to determine whether integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for co-occurring ED-PTSD was superior to standard CBT for ED in improving PTSD symptoms. Intervention safety and desirability, as well as the relative efficacy of the treatments in improving anxiety, depression, and ED symptomatology, were also examined.

Following a course of intensive ED treatment, individuals with ED-PTSD were recruited to participate and randomized to integrated CBT for ED-PTSD or standard CBT for ED. The sample consisted of 42 individuals with a range of ED diagnoses. Outcomes were assessed at end-of-treatment, 3-, and 6-month follow-up using interview and self-report measures.

Mixed models revealed significant interactions of time and therapy condition on clinician-rated and self-reported PTSD symptom severity favoring Integrated CBT for ED-PTSD. Both treatments were associated with statistically significant improvements in PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Improvements were maintained at 3- and 6-month follow-up. There was good safety with both interventions, and satisfaction with both treatments was high. However, there was a stronger preference for integrated treatment.

Integrating CBTs for PTSD and ED following intensive ED treatment is safe, desirable, and efficacious for improving PTSD symptoms. Future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to determine whether Integrated CBT for ED-PTSD provides benefits over standard CBT for ED with respect to ED outcomes.